Love love love ( )

Reading the blurb for The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge and finding out the main character Martha can tell things about a person just by touching their clothes, I was immediately sold.

Discovering this is a young adult debut and part ghost story set in Norway based on ancient Norse mythology was a bonus.

Regular Carpe Librum followers will no doubt have noticed that I don't read much YA at all, but The Twisted Tree reminded me that I still enjoy the odd title every now and again.

Martha is partially blinded in an accident and has run away from home. She travels to Norway seeking answers from her grandmother, desperately hoping she can explain her strange ability to discern memories and emotions just from touching a person's clothes.

"Mum had bought the blouse a few days ago, and it was the first time I'd touched silk. I know from going through her wardrobe that different types of fabric reveal their secrets differently - cashmere holds a person's emotions and makes you feel them like your own; cotton shows images and facts without feeling - but silk is like nothing else. It speaks of deceit." Page 19

Complete with a creepy gothic cover design and easy to read YA thriller building from the opening pages, The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge was a pleasure to read.

Martha is struggling to come to terms with her changed appearance since the incident that left her blind in one eye, and there is a subtle budding hint of romance that takes place during all of the spooky thrilling action.

The Twisted Tree is the first in a series to feature Martha, and the next one is called The Crooked Mask and was published in 2020. The Crooked Mask continues the story of the two main characters, but I think I'm happy to leave them here, fully satisfied that I finally read this book, after adding it my list back in November 2018.

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge is a great choice for October reading, providing some scary and spooktacular moments and a super creepy tree. ( )

"The Twisted Tree" is an original, deeply atmospheric Young Adult book that brings Norse myths to life in modern Norway, as seventeen-year-old Marta runs away from home in England to her Grandmother's cabin in Norway, only to discover that, instead of a refuge from the traumas in her life, she has made herself the target of a supernatural threat.

I listened to the first four hours on a long drive and was completely pulled in to the story. I liked the fact that, although this is a relatively short book (180 pages / six hours forty minutes) Rachel Burge didn't rush storytelling.

We follow Martha step by step as she makes her first solo journey to Norway and tries to make sense of what she finds there. As she journeys, we learn about the recent trauma that she's suffered and about her sudden and unwelcome ability to read the thoughts of emotions of people when she touches their clothes.

I liked the slow growth of a sense of threat in the story, which matches pace with Martha's arrival on an in Norway on a dark, stormy January night. All Martha's previous visits have been in summer when the days feel endless, so the menacing beauty of the benighted, snow-covered mountains was new to her. Part of my enjoyment came from how well the atmosphere of the mountains in winter was evoked. I'm recently returned from living in Switzerland and it fed my hunger for mountains and snow as I drove past flooded fields in dismal but unrelenting rain in the daylight-dark of an English winter,

"The Twisted Tree" is not so much horror story as a story about a young woman discovering the truth of her Norwegian heritage, the responsibilities it places on her and the abilities it gives her.

Key to the success of the book is the fact that Martha is a believable seventeen-year-old girl, not some kick-ass warrior woman. She's brave when she needs to be but she spends much of her time frightened and unsure about what to do next.

There's a romance element to the book that is nicely judged to develop Martha's character without sliding into melodrama. There are also some very creepy scenes with the dead, the undead and the recently murdered.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the book wobbled a bit in the last ninety minutes. There was a lull in the action as Martha waits for dawn before doing what needs to be done to deal with the supernatural threat she faces. I understand why the lull was there. It was used to give Martha a dream contact with a key character who guides her on what she has to do but the pacing, which had been intense, was broken and, to me, there seemed to be too much of explaining of what had to be done and why.

The book recovered during the climactic conflict and set itself up for a sequel but it lost a little impact along the way.

The narrator. Kate Okello does a good job. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

https://soundcloud.com/bonnierbooksuk/the-twisted-tree-by-rachel-burge-audio-ext... ( )

Twisted Tree, by Rachel Burge, is about a 17 year old girl named Martha who lives in London with her mom. Because of an accident that damaged her left eye, she can now feel emotions and see images by touching someone's clothes. She doesn't tell many people about it because she knows that they wont believe her. To figure out why this happened to her, she travels to Norway to visit her Mormor (grandma). When she arrives, not only is her Mormor dead, but there is another person living in her house. The stranger living in the house is Stig. After some talking, she found out that he was a runaway from his parents. He saw that Mormor's house was empty and he decided to stay. Even though Martha was mad about him breaking into Mormor's house, she let him stay. Over time, a friendship bonds between them, and she learns a bit about him too from his clothes. One day, the Mormor's spinning wheel starts spinning on its own in the closet. Martha investigates and finds a chest. Inside, holds a letter from Mormor. Many dark and strange secrets about her family are revealed. Apparently, the tree outside her Mormor's house is not just any regular tree. That is the tree of the world. In the roots is the underworld where the dead live. If the tree is watered daily, it will be healthy and the dead will remain underground. However, if the tree is not watered and healthy, the hole in the tree enlarges and the dead can escape. It's not just the dead that Martha and Stig have to worry about. There is also another hideous creature named Draugr. This creature kills the living. Going back to Martha's eye incident, surprisingly, her blind eye can see ghosts. Her ancestors came back from the tree and told her that her Mormor is stuck at the tree tormented by regret and she needs Martha's help. She goes to the underworld in the tree, meets the Queen, and is giving an ax to kill the Draugr. In order to kill it, she must cut off its head clean with one blow. While she is trying to get away from the Draugr, it kills Stig. After fighting for her life and almost dying, she escapes from the Draugr. It takes a lot a strength and courage, but Martha eventually she slays the Draugr and Mormor is out of the tree and no longer tormented.. As promised by the Queen, Stig gets his life back.

I really enjoyed this book. I like thriller stories and this was definitely a perfect fit. I stayed up really late reading this book because I couldn't put it down. Every page something new happened or something interesting was said. There wasn't a dull moment in this book. I do have to admit, after I read it, it took me a few minutes to fall asleep because this book was a little disturbing. There also wasn't that much romance between Martha and Stig which was good. It also was very different compared to regular books. It had an interesting topic that I enjoyed. ( )

Unusual and interesting twist on Norse mythology. If you had to lose an eye and have your face scarred in order to inherit your family ability, would you ever think of agreeing. For Martha, the choice was never hers to make. Add in her parents' divorce, what seems to be her mother's mental illness and her extreme self-consciousness following the horrific accident and you have one miserable young woman. When she lies to her mom and goes to her beloved grandmother's remote cabin in Norway, it starts another journey, one that involves a boy feeling equal emotional pain, myths coming alive, violence, frightening creatures and an obligation to water a very strange tree. Read the book to see how it all shakes out. ( )